Could the self-described "most conservative" Republican presidential candidate run and win in California? Rick Perry says he could, and plans to should he win his party's nomination. The Texas governor is expected to formally announce his candidacy in the next week, a process that will begin with stops in the early-voting states of South Carolina and New Hampshire on Saturday. In a new interview with Time magazine's Mark Halperin , Perry said he's now getting comfortable with the notion that "this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

KAUFMAN, Texas -- The state's governor denounced what he called "attacks on the rule of law," and vowed justice. Kaufman County's new district attorney mourned her fatherlike predecessor, fatally shot along with his wife in their home two months after another colleague was killed. And as other officials gathered to speak to reporters inside the Kaufman County courthouse Thursday -- where Assistant Dist. Atty. Mark Hasse was gunned down by an unknown assailant in the parking lot on Jan. 31 -- authorities begged the public for tips, still without a formal a suspect in either Hasse's or Mike and Cynthia McLelland's slayings.

Aides to Rick Perry declined to pinpoint any one trigger for the Texas governor's decision to bow out of the race, but Perry suggested in his remarks that he thought it was important for conservatives to coalesce behind one candidate at this critical juncture just before the South Carolina primary. Many operatives had expected Perry to leave the Republican race after the Iowa caucuses, but despite his embarrassing fifth-place finish “he decided he had the organizational resources, the financial resources and the fire in the belly to move forward into South Carolina - recognizing that it was an uphill battle,” Perry advisor Ray Sullivan said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Monday that he would step down at the end of his current term, a move that will end his reign as the longest-serving chief executive in state history even as he left open the possibility of another run for president in 2016. Quoting from the Book of Ecclesiastes, Perry said there was a time for everything in life and, for him, "the time has come to pass on the mantle of leadership. " Perry's decision, which was not unexpected, ensures the biggest shakeup in Texas politics in well over a decade, though the fresh faces are likely to be Republican and not Democratic.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry romped to an easy victory Tuesday night in a bitterly fought GOP primary that pitted him against the state's popular U.S. senator and an insurgent candidate favored by the "tea party" movement. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison conceded the contest less than an hour after the polls closed when it became evident that Perry would receive at least the 50% he needed to avoid an April 13 runoff. Debra Medina, a longtime party activist making her first try for public office, finished third.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is on a hunting trip in California. And the prey is Golden State businesses - and jobs. Perry kicked off his in-your-face campaign to woo companies to the Lone Star State this month with radio ads declaring that "building a business in California is next to impossible. " Now the governor is on a whirlwind trip through the state courting companies in person. "You fish where the fish are," Perry said Tuesday during an interview in Beverly Hills, his slow drawl emphasizing each point.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has powered his political career on the largesse of donors like Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who gave the governor $1.12 million in recent years. And donors like Simmons have found the rewards to be mutual, reaping benefits from Texas during Perry's tenure. Perry has received a total of $37 million over the last decade from just 150 individuals and couples, who are likely to form the backbone of his new effort to win the Republican presidential nomination.

For more than a decade Texas Gov. Rick Perry has forcefully governed his state through intimidation and influence, wooing wealthy donors, trouncing election opponents and making appointments that packed the capital with loyalists. But after dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, Perry returned home with a new air of political vulnerability. "The fear is gone. The aura of invincibility that surrounds him has been punctured," said Jake Silverstein, editor of Texas Monthly, which voted Perry its "Bum Steer of the Year" on account of numerous campaign flubs, most memorably his "oops" moment during a Michigan debate when he couldn't remember the third federal department he wanted to eliminate.

With a debate gaffe blasting through his presidential candidacy, Rick Perry turned from seeking resurgence to trying to avoid extinction. His fundraisers have begun to abandon the Texas governor. Republican strategists are offering eulogies. Perry, who has avoided interviews throughout his two-month campaign, signaled the depth of his desperation by talking almost nonstop to national media outlets Thursday, ending with a stop on CBS' Letterman show to mock his mistake. Few thought it would help.